Editing Johannes Brahms (section)

===Old age (1889–1897)===
[[File:Strauss und Brahms.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|[[Johann Strauss II]] (left) and Brahms, photographed in Vienna]]

====Friendship with J. Strauss====
Brahms and [[Johann Strauss II]] were acquainted in the 1870s, but their close friendship belongs to the years 1889 and after. Brahms admired much of Strauss's music and encouraged the composer to sign with his publisher Simrock. In autographing a fan for Strauss's wife Adele, Brahms wrote the opening notes of ''[[The Blue Danube]]'' waltz, adding the words "unfortunately not by Johannes Brahms".<ref name=Lamb>{{harvnb|Lamb|1975|pp=869–870}}</ref> He made the effort, three weeks before his death, to attend the premiere of Johann Strauss's operetta ''[[Die Göttin der Vernunft]]'' (The Goddess of Reason) in March 1897.<ref name=Lamb />

[[File:Zentralfriedhof Vienna - Brahms.JPG|thumb|left|upright=0.8|Grave in the [[Vienna Central Cemetery]]; monument designed by [[Victor Horta]] and sculpture by [[Ilse von Twardowski]]]]

====Late chamber music and songs====
After the successful Vienna premiere of his [[String Quintet No. 2 (Brahms)|Second String Quintet]], Op. 111 in 1890, the 57-year-old Brahms came to think that he might retire from composition, telling a friend that he "had achieved enough; here I had before me a carefree old age and could enjoy it in peace."{{sfn|Swafford|1999|pp=568–569}} He also began to find solace in escorting the mezzo-soprano [[Alice Barbi]] and may have proposed to her (she was only 28).{{sfn|Swafford|1999|p=569}} His admiration for [[Richard Mühlfeld]], clarinettist with the Meiningen orchestra, revived his interest in composing and led him to write the [[Clarinet Trio (Brahms)|Clarinet Trio]], Op.&nbsp;114 (1891); [[Clarinet Quintet (Brahms)|Clarinet Quintet]], Op.&nbsp;115 (1891); and the two [[Clarinet Sonatas (Brahms)|Clarinet Sonatas]], Op.&nbsp;120 (1894).

Brahms also wrote at this time his final cycles of piano pieces, Opp.&nbsp;[[Fantasies, Op. 116 (Brahms)|116]]–[[Four Pieces for Piano, Op. 119 (Brahms)|119]] and the ''[[Vier ernste Gesänge]]'' (Four Serious Songs), Op.&nbsp;121 (1896), which were prompted by the death of Clara Schumann and dedicated to the artist [[Max Klinger]], who was his great admirer.<ref>{{cite web|title=Max Klinger / Johannes Brahms: Engraving, Music and Fantasy|url=https://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/events/exhibitions/in-the-museums/exhibitions-in-the-musee-dorsay-more/article/max-klinger-johannes-brahms-engraving-music-and-fantasy-4485.html|website=[[Musée d'Orsay]]|access-date=2 March 2021|archive-date=17 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210417023216/https://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/events/exhibitions/in-the-museums/exhibitions-in-the-musee-dorsay-more/article/max-klinger-johannes-brahms-engraving-music-and-fantasy-4485.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> The last of the [[Eleven Chorale Preludes]] for organ, Op.&nbsp;122 (1896) is a setting of "O Welt ich muss dich lassen" ("O world I must leave thee") and the last notes that Brahms wrote.{{sfn|Bond|1971|p=898}} Many of these works were written in his house in [[Bad Ischl]], where Brahms had first visited in 1882 and where he spent every summer from 1889 onwards.{{sfn|Hofmann|Hofmann|2010|p=42}}

====Terminal illness====
In the summer of 1896 Brahms was diagnosed with [[jaundice]] and [[pancreatic cancer]], and later in the year his Viennese doctor diagnosed him with [[liver cancer]], from which his father Jakob had died.{{sfn|Swafford|1999|pp=614–615}} His last public appearance was on 7 March 1897, when he saw [[Hans Richter (conductor)|Hans Richter]] conduct his [[Symphony No. 4 (Brahms)|Symphony No. 4]]; there was an ovation after each of the four movements.<ref>{{cite book|last=Clive|first=Peter|title=Brahms and His World: A Biographical Dictionary|chapter=Richter, Hans|publisher=Scarecrow Press|year=2006|page=361|isbn=978-1-4617-2280-9}}</ref> His condition gradually worsened and he died on 3 April 1897, in Vienna at the age of 63. Brahms is buried in the [[Vienna Central Cemetery]] in Vienna, under a monument designed by [[Victor Horta]] with sculpture by [[Ilse von Twardowski]].<ref>[http://www.viennatouristguide.at/Friedhoefe/Zentralfriedhof/Index_32A_Thumbs/z_index_32A_kl.htm#lageplan Zentralfriedhof group 32a], details</ref>